Vehicle sensing system for detecting turn signal indicators

ABSTRACT

A vision system for a vehicle includes a camera disposed at the vehicle and having a field of view exterior of the vehicle. A control, via processing of image data captured by the camera, is operable to detect the presence of a vehicle and a blinking light source in the field of view of the camera. The control, via processing of captured image data, determines an angle of the detected vehicle relative to the equipped vehicle and, responsive to determination of the angle, determines a middle region of an end of the detected vehicle. Responsive to detection of the vehicle and the blinking light source, the vision system is operable to determine whether the detected blinking light source is a left turn signal indicator of the detected vehicle or a right turn signal indicator of the detected vehicle.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims the filing benefits of U.S. provisionalapplication Ser. No. 62/383,792, filed Sep. 6, 2016, which is herebyincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a vehicle vision system for avehicle and, more particularly, to a vehicle vision system that utilizesone or more cameras at a vehicle.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Use of imaging sensors in vehicle imaging systems is common and known.Examples of such known systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos.5,949,331; 5,670,935 and/or 5,550,677, which are hereby incorporatedherein by reference in their entireties.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a driver assistance system or visionsystem or imaging system for a vehicle that utilizes one or more cameras(preferably one or more CMOS cameras) to capture image datarepresentative of images exterior of the vehicle, and wherein an imageprocessor is operable to process image data captured by the camera todetect the presence of a blinking light source in the field of view ofthe camera. Responsive to detection of a blinking light source, thevision system determines if the detected blinking light source is a turnsignal indicator of another vehicle on the road on which the equippedvehicle is traveling based on a characteristic of the detected blinkinglight source being within a threshold level corresponding to acharacteristic of a turn signal indicator of a vehicle.

The vision system may determine if the detected blinking light source isa turn signal indicator of another vehicle on the road on which theequipped vehicle is traveling based on at least one of (i) a color ofthe detected blinking light source being within a threshold color range,(ii) the rate of flashing of the detected blinking light source beingwithin a threshold rate, and (iii) the location of the detected blinkinglight source being within a threshold range of locations for anothervehicle. The threshold level may be selected or adjusted responsive to acurrent geographical location of the equipped vehicle (which may bedetermined via a communication to the vehicle or a GPS system of thevehicle or the like).

These and other objects, advantages, purposes and features of thepresent invention will become apparent upon review of the followingspecification in conjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a vehicle with a vision system thatincorporates cameras in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of a vehicle equipped with the system of thepresent invention, shown traveling along a multi-lane road with othervehicles, where the solid type of arrows indicate the intended paths,the dotted type of arrows indicate the chosen path and the whiteoutlined type of arrows indicate the vehicle's direction with the lengthof the arrow indicating the vehicle speed;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an Autobahn scene as it would becaptured by a forward viewing camera at an inner mirror position of thevehicle;

FIG. 4 shows the result of a basic machine vision scene classificationalgorithm which has classified the scene image of FIG. 3, showing thedrivable freespace, the street signs, the road markings, the sky and theroad participants classified separately and highlighted by differentgray overlays in rough patches (boxes);

FIG. 5A is a chart showing how a region of interest (ROI) of a movingobject gets extracted from the scene or object classification result;

FIG. 5B is the application of a detection tile grid applied onto the ROIfrom FIG. 5A;

FIG. 5C shows the result of an edge filtering of the image of a subjectvehicle;

FIG. 6A shows a vehicle from the rear at a point of time t1 at right,shown with the blinker off;

FIG. 6B shows the vehicle of FIG. 6A at a point of time t2 with itsdetection grid tiles on the left, shown with the left blinker on;

FIG. 7A shows the rotational shape of a vehicle in the bounding boxesbeing determined from the edge detection image from FIG. 5C;

FIGS. 7B and 7C show the borderline at which the divide of left to rightis set as determined by the rotational shape acquired in FIG. 7A and instep ‘Left and right—ROI divide up by shape and rotation’ in FIGS. 18and 19;

FIG. 8A shows that, at an angled view onto a moving object, the divideinto front and side isn't always half to half and the ratio front toside does not match to left and right;

FIG. 8B shows the shape outlines and a grid applied to the moving objectthat does not allow to dedicate the TSI-ROIs sufficiently without theshapes divided up in front and side;

FIG. 9 is an image taken by a blind spot camera view of the ego vehicle(by a side mirror mounted rearward directed camera with blind spotdetection area close to 90 degrees), with the angles relative torearward being indicated;

FIG. 10 is a cut out of the vehicle in view of FIG. 9 at the left and aresult of the left/right divide up according the associated shape model(Mini Van) turn dedication (see also FIG. 7A and in step ‘Left andright—ROI divide up by shape and rotation’ in FIGS. 18 and 19);

FIG. 11 is a plan view that visualizes the angle at which a vehicle isseen relative to the ego vehicle and gives sufficient indication inwhich orientation the foreign vehicles is seen by the capturing camera,where the object's borderline angles can be matched to a rotationalshape model;

FIG. 12 shows a cropping of FIG. 3 past edge detection;

FIG. 13 shows a rotational shape model classified by a classifier thatadditionally outputs a confidence level of the rotation (and viewing)angles;

FIG. 14 shows an object classification algorithm according the inventionthat is able to classify the vehicle types, such as having classes fortruck, trailer truck, pick up, SUV, Mini Van or Sedan type vehicles,with the classifier's results having confidence levels indicated;

FIG. 15 shows that the areas of interest could have been reduced tosmall areas at which the blinking time pattern may get supervised fordetection, where this can be the result of a rotational shape model(2D);

FIG. 16 shows the result of peak lights filtering done by imagehistogram manipulation;

FIG. 17 is a flow chart of the basic aspects according the invention(FIGS. 20 and 21 show the content of the process‘ROI_blinking_determination’), using shape left to right divide updetermination by using the angle from which the subject vehicle is seenin the ego vehicle camera (with known angle parameters);

FIG. 18 is a flow chart of advanced aspects according the inventionshowing a turn signal indicator (TSI) ROI positioning determined from arotational shape model (2D) which was enhanced by using edge detectionand an object type classification;

FIG. 19 is a flow chart of aspects according the invention showing a3D-TSI ROI positioning determined from ‘Moving Object brand and modelclassification’ parallel to the above 2D methods, also showing a ROIdata fusion that uses a reliability score from the three TSI ROIpositioning procedures;

FIG. 20 is a flow chart of the details on the‘ROI_blinking_determination’ which is content of the flow charts ofFIGS. 17, 18 and 19, with each ROI's tile x,y has a single band passwhich filters the brightness values over all past images k up to the tothe current frame n, which results whether a blinking result wasdetected in the according tile or not; and

FIG. 21 shows a sequence of consecutive ROI's which were applied to amoving road object according the routine shown in the flow charts ofFIGS. 17, 18, 19 in accordance with the chart of FIG. 20, with 60 framesper second each half square wave of a 1.5 Hz signal takes 20 frames, anddue to that past 40 frames t(n-40) a 1.5 Hz signal can reliably befiltered in frame n-20 the TSI is ON in frame n and n-40 the TSI is OFF,where the ROI's tiles with signals that exceed a threshold past the bandpass filtering detected as blinking at time t(n), and with the filtersand the example tile 1, 2 spectrum is shown as well, wherein, as the“Result for all tiles past band pass filtering” shows, the tiles whichchange the most exceed the threshold of the sequence filtering'samplitude (for further processing).

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A vehicle vision system and/or driving assist system and/or objectdetection system and/or alert system and/or control system for a driverassistance and warning system, such as for an autonomous orsemi-autonomous vehicle, operates to capture images exterior of thevehicle and may process the captured image data to display images and todetect objects at or near the vehicle and in the predicted path of thevehicle, such as to assist in maneuvering the vehicle. The vision systemincludes an image processor or image processing system that is operableto receive image data from one or more cameras and provide an output toa display device for displaying images representative of the capturedimage data. Optionally, the vision system may provide display, such as arearview display or a top down or bird's eye or surround view display orthe like.

Referring now to the drawings and the illustrative embodiments depictedtherein, a vehicle 10 includes an imaging system or vision system 12that includes at least one exterior facing imaging sensor or camera,such as a rearward facing imaging sensor or camera 14 a (and the systemmay optionally include multiple exterior facing imaging sensors orcameras, such as a forward viewing camera 14 b at the front and aforward viewing camera 14 h at the windshield of the vehicle, and asideward viewing camera 14 c, 14 d at respective sides of the vehicleand another rearward viewing cameras 14 e, 14 f integrated to the sidemirrors or a wing and another rearward facing camera 14 g at a rearwindow of the vehicle), which capture image data representative of thescene occurring exterior of the vehicle, with each of the cameras havinga lens for focusing images at or onto an imaging array or imaging planeor imager of the camera (FIG. 1). Optionally, the forward viewing camera(14 h) may be disposed at the windshield of the vehicle and view throughthe windshield and forward of the vehicle, such as for a machine visionsystem (such as for traffic sign recognition, headlamp control,pedestrian detection, collision avoidance, lane marker detection and/orthe like). The vision system 12 includes a control or electronic controlunit (ECU) or processor 18 that is operable to process image datacaptured by the camera or cameras and may detect objects or the likeand/or provide displayed images at a display device 16 for viewing bythe driver of the vehicle (although shown in FIG. 1 as being part of orincorporated in or at an interior rearview mirror assembly 19 of thevehicle, the control and/or the display device may be disposed elsewhereat or in the vehicle). The data transfer or signal communication fromthe camera to the ECU may comprise any suitable data or communicationlink, such as a vehicle network bus or the like of the equipped vehicle.

Driver assistant systems for aiding the driver to hold its lane areknown. Nowadays these often also possess a lane change function, whichis typically initiated by the driver setting his or her turn signalindicator (hereinafter referred to as TSI) into the direction of theintended target lane. When the TSI is set, the crossing of the adjacenttarget lane borderline (typically the lane marking) gets allowed to thesystem, which than executes the lane change, which is completed when thevehicle is within the target lane's borderlines.

Typically, the driver has to take care about sufficient clearance at thetarget lane before initiating the lane change. Some systems provide aidsand warnings to the driver and/or automated systems by sensing theadjacent lane's clearance. This is typically done by using RADARsensors, LIDAR sensors or Ultrasound sensors, or optionally cameras.Unlike RADAR sensors, LIDAR sensors and Ultrasound sensors, mono-camerasare not as capable of measuring the distance to objects within thevisual scene per se, which makes them a second choice. Algorithms arepresent to provide distance estimations, such as structure from motion,back projection and plausible size comparison by mono-camera. Stereocameras are often too expansive and too bulky. Often, it is thedesirable to incorporate the adjacent lane sensors within the vehicleside mirror housing, by that the space the sensor can take is morelimited. The possible stereo base of a stereo camera and the typicalresolution that is available in automotive, such as about twomegapixels, is typically too small for delivering a sufficient distancemeasurement for approaching traffic.

Some more advanced systems are capable for object and scene detection bytheir sensor equipment, data processors, fusion and data processingalgorithms, which are capable to sense whether a moving object, such asa vehicle approaching from the blind spot or from behind the equippedvehicle from the lane 31 of the equipped vehicle or from the lane 33next to the adjacent lane 32 is already directing into the adjacent lanethat the driver of the equipped vehicle was intending to change to. Thisis shown in FIG. 2, where the equipped vehicle 10 is traveling in theright lane and intends to move to the adjacent lane to the left, whileanother vehicle 22 is two lanes over and intends to move to its adjacentlane to the right (which is the same lane that the equipped vehicle ismoving into). Both vehicles have their TSIs set already.

For RADAR sensing systems, LIDAR sensing systems and Ultrasonic sensingsystems, it is impossible to detect whether an approaching vehicle hasits TSI set. Additionally, the vehicle 22 is in the blind spot ofvehicle 10. Known blind spot vehicle detection systems typically do notsense and warn about vehicles in adjacent lanes further than the nextlane.

The system of the present invention is capable to sense the blinking ofa TSI of an (or multiple) approaching vehicle (both in front or rear theego vehicle). The regulations of the most countries specify the colorroom or spectral band of actuated TSIs. Additionally, the regulations ofthe most countries specify the blinking on and off time for actuatedTSIs. For example, Germany's StVO § 54 requires a blinking frequency of1.5+/−0.5 Hz. The on/off ratio is 55% +/−25%. Many countries alsospecify the position at which the TSIs have to be mounted at thevehicle.

The system of the present invention may receive the information in whichcountry it actually is. Such information may be provided from a visionprocessing system, from a navigation system or set by a driver entry.

The system of the present invention may detect the blinking at anapproaching object and may determine the blinking to be a TSI by takingits peak light intensity, its blinking time pattern, its color tone andits position on the object into account.

The object may have been previously detected and classified by known artscene-(‘2D Scene classification’ in FIG. 17) and object classifiers asbeing a road participant. Some object classifiers are able to classifythe road participant different kinds (moving, non-static traffic), suchas trucks, cars, motorcycles or bicycles (newly at Eurobike 2016 atFriedrichshafen the startup LUMOS (https://lumoshelmet.co/) presented abicycle helmet with an integrated turn indicator), with the exception ofpedestrians and rickshaws which typically have no TSIs (‘Moving objectdiscrimination’ in the flow chart of FIG. 17). FIG. 3 shows a scenecaptured by a front camera with foreign vehicles in front (towards whichthe ego vehicle may close or approach). FIG. 4 shows the result of abasic machine vision scene classification algorithm which has classifiedthe scene image of FIG. 3 (past ‘2D Scene classification’ in the flowchart of FIG. 17). The drivable freespace, the street signs, the roadmarkings, the sky and the road participants are classified andseparately highlighted by different gray overlays in rough patches(boxes).

The equipped vehicle's position (ego position) may be known or detectedby known positioning systems and algorithms, such as GPS or visualsystems. The foreign road participant object's position may be known bymethods such as by getting the positions told by any kind of V2Vcommunication or by relative object distance and angle detection such asby using RADAR sensing systems, LIDAR sensing systems, stereo cameravision systems or structure from motion processing on mono cameras forscene detection and object mapping (see step ‘Shape rotation by relativeangle’ in the flow chart of FIG. 17).

The object detection and classification may output the roadparticipant's borderlines or shapes (eventually used as ROI later suchas shown in FIG. 6, if not limited furtherly). By knowing the relativeposition of the other vehicle, and the angle to it (see FIG. 11), it maybe possible to tell whether a road participant blinks on the right sideor on the left side, which is the essential information to detect. Thisworks well when a road participant is mostly visible from the rear orfrom the front (see FIGS. 6 and 7). At a highway the vehicles in frontof the equipped vehicle are mostly be seen from the rear and thevehicles behind the equipped vehicle are mostly seen frontal.

The patch which was classified as a road participant may be used asgenerally region of interest ROI for detecting blinkers as shown in thechart of FIG. 5A. A detection grid may be applied onto the ROI as shownin FIG. 5B. For determining whether a road participant is blinking thedetection areas may always be reduced to the areas of the roadparticipant ROls. For each tile of the detection grid an averagebrightness over all pixels of each tile may be calculated. Since the ROIstays with the road participant's object also when the object and theego vehicle is moving relative to one another over consecutive frames,the ROI's enclosed area stay comparable also in consecutive frames (thisassumption is essential for the blinking filtering over consecutiveframes visualized in FIG. 21).

FIG. 6A shows the same vehicle from the rear at a point of time t1 andFIG. 6B at a point of time t2 with its detection grid tiles, with FIG.6A having all left blinker off and 6B having the left blinker on. Asvisible some tiles show a higher brightness average. By comparing alltiles over time, and filtering out a (optionally country-) specificon-off time pattern, blinking can be detected. The timely sequence(typically 1.5 Hz) of the TSI's blinking is comparably slow. To generatea signal whether a 1.5 Hz blinking light signal is present in a TSI'sROI, the system according the invention may use a (timely, not color)1.5 Hz bandpass filtering over the brightness of each ROI's tile, suchas shown in the sequence of FIG. 21. Optionally, the tiles with thehighest bandpass out signal may have a dedicated amplification score,which gets risen to high bandpass output signals and diminished when thesignal is low. A 2D tracking algorithm may be influenced by the highestsignal scored tiles. The ROI may have an attractor in a center regionthat may always be shifted by a small amount on each frame for fittingthe ROI's center to the TSI's center in view accurately.

Seen from the rear or front the detection of the TSI is comparablyprimitive. As visualized in FIGS. 7B and 7C, when seen from rear thetiles within the left 50% portion of the ROI can be taken for detectingthe left TSI, the right 50% portion of the ROI can be taken fordetecting the right TSI. This means the ratio left to right is 50/50.Detecting the road participant's blinking side, which are seen from anangle such as road participants rear, right relative to the ego orequipped vehicle are seen from the front and the left such as the trucksin the example of FIG. 8A. At these often more than one turn indicatorblinker may be visible at once and the side at which the blinking takesplace is harder to tell since the ratio of front to side portion isdepending on the viewing angle. Although all TSI's belonging to theidentical side are typically blinking synchronously this cannot be usedas the only distinguishing characteristic, since with ‘hazard warninglights’ on the left and the right side may also be blinkingsynchronously.

At vehicles seen in an angle, the line where to divide right from leftis not in the middle but still in the middle of the front portion. Theshape of the ROI taken from the classification alone may notsufficiently tell where the front portion ends and the side portionbegins (see FIG. 8B). This becomes evident when looking at the vehicleindicated ‘B’ in FIG. 9, taken at the blind spot of the ego vehicle (bya side mirror mounted rearward directed camera with blind spot detectionarea close to 90 degrees). Vehicle B is at a relative angle of about 60degrees to the ego vehicle. Due to the camera's fish eye lens, thevehicle appears additionally skewed. As visualized in FIG. 10, the frontto side ratio of on vehicle in such an angle view is in the area of10/90.

To solve this it may be assumed that the actual ego lane and theadjacent past and proceeding lanes (so all lanes) are well known,detected by known art lane detection (possibly together with the rest ofthe scene, so scene detection in accordance with ‘2D Sceneclassification’ in FIG. 17, 18 and 19 or ‘3D Scene classification’ inFIG. 19) systems and algorithms or given by precise (non-real time)maps. It can be assumed that the own and the foreign road participantsdirective orientation is substantially in alignment with its lanepropagation. By knowing the perceiving camera's mounting point andviewing direction and by detecting the angle relative to the foreignroad participants, the relative perspective can be assumed mostlysufficient (see step ‘Shape rotation by angle’ in FIGS. 17, 18 and 19).In case the systems lacks depth sensors (3D) or a depth estimation orcalculation algorithm (according the flow charts of FIG. 17 or 18) sothat the foreign vehicles cannot be localized to the surrounding scenemap, detecting just their angle at which these are seen relative to theego vehicle may give sufficient indication of the orientation of theforeign vehicles relative to the own vehicle, see FIG. 11. FIG. 9 showsexamples out of the view of a side camera directed rearward.

By that the ratio between front portion and side portion of a roadparticipant can be assumed and by that it can be detected whether ablinker may be mostly in the left third or the right third of a roadparticipant's front and whether it is plausible that also side blinkersvisible at the road participant's side portion.

Optionally, instead of determining the relative angles of foreignvehicles relative to the ego vehicle, the system of the invention mayhave an object classification algorithm which puts out the vehicles'surface portions such as ‘left side’, ‘right side’, ‘front’, ‘rear’ (andoptionally also the ‘top’ when visible).

In an alternative option for improving the clear distinguishing betweenthe front portion and side portion of a road participant seen from anangle, an object orientation classifier may come into use (see step‘Shape rotation by image classification’ in the flow charts of FIGS. 18and 19). It may have been trained by learning a typical road user'sorientation together with its according shape. On run time the naturalinput image of the ROI may be classified. Optionally, to improve thevehicle shape determination from the background, the system accordingthe invention may have an edge sharpening (e.g., high pas filter) oredge filtering algorithm (e.g., canny filter). FIG. 12 shows a (cropped)high pass filtered image of the source image FIG. 3 with bounding boxesaround the foreign road objects of interest. FIG. 5C shows the edgefiltering of just the fraction of the bounding box (If not the wholeimage gets edge filtered this may be the preferred alternative). Theshape of the vehicles in the bounding boxes may be classified and theborderline at which the divide of left to right is to set may bedetermined upon that shape result such as shown in the charts of FIGS.7A and 7B.

Optionally, the classifier may output a confidence level at whichviewing angle may apply most, such as indicated in FIG. 13. The anglewith the highest score may be taken as the viewing angle for furtherprocessing. The processing frame's dedicated angles may be taken forplausifying the current frame since the viewing angle may not changeabruptly (while passing an object). More sophisticated objectclassification algorithms according the invention may be able toclassify the vehicle type, such as having classes for truck-, trailertruck-, pick up-, SUV-, Mini Van- or Sedan type vehicles (see step‘Moving object type classification’ in the flow charts of FIGS. 18 and19). FIG. 14 shows such a classifier's result with confidence levelsindicated. The vehicle type result may be input to the rotational viewor shape classifier (rotational shape model (2D)) so it is working moreaccurately.

Optionally, the classifier may output the typical areas where at thistype of vehicle the TSIs are to be found directly. FIG. 15 shows thatthe areas of interest could have been reduced to small areas at whichthe blinking time pattern may get supervised for detection. Optionally,the classifier may output the exact brand and type of any vehicle inview to pinpoint where the position of the TSIs is to be expected.Optionally, in case the system has the above mentioned depth sensors(3D) or depth estimation or calculation algorithms, the signalprocessing flow charts of FIG. 19 may be applied. It can be assumed thatin the range the 3D detection works, the signals of the foreign movingobject is strong enough to do a direct determination where the TSI ROI'spositions on the object are determined (without shape analysis) due tothe object's 3D orientation knowledge which is inherent the 3D sceneclassification or determination. Optionally, multiple 2D and 3D TSI-ROIposition determination methods may be used at once, with the resultsfused by a fusing algorithm. As shown in FIG. 19, the fusion may be donevia a reliability score and each TSI-ROI position determination methodmay produce generally or alternatively for each TSI-ROI. Some methodsmay be more reliable for far object's TSI ROI position detection whileothers may be preferred for close object's TSI ROI position detection.

Optionally, the peak lights may be enhanced by an image histogrammanipulation so that the TSIs can get separated from the image clutterbetter (optionally just in the objects bounding box or ROI) as shown inthe filtered image of FIG. 16. Optionally, a color filter for orange(Europe) and/or red (North America) may be used for reducing the amountof irrelevant peak lights in the camera's field of view. Optionally, thecolor filter may be tuned to red or orange according the vehicleclassification (since in Europe there are also still red TSI's allowed).

Optionally, the system of the present invention may employ ananti-flicker filtering algorithm for improving the true positive blinkerdetection ratio. Optionally, the anti-flicker and TSI determinationalgorithm, systems and devices may be communized to one common system.Optionally, the TSI determination system may control or influence thecamera color, camera brightness and/or HDR control parameters foroptimizing TSI determination SNR.

Optionally, a system according the invention may have (ego-) vehiclecontrol means to assist or intervene in case the ego vehicle is about toenter a lane that another relatively close (or still relatively distantbut fast approaching) vehicle is also about to enter, such asdiscontinuing the lane change maneuver, but staying in the occupied laneand braking if necessary instead (in the example of FIG. 2, the “pathchosen” is the path an automated or intervening system according theinvention may take in combination with braking).

Therefore, the system of the present invention uses a vision system todetect and identify activated turn signal indicators of other vehiclespresent in the field of view of the camera at the equipped vehicle. Thesystem processes image data captured by the camera to detect blinking orflashing, and determines whether or not the detected blinking isindicative of an activated turn signal indicator of a vehicle ahead orbehind the equipped vehicle. Such determination is made responsive to acolor of the detected blinking being within a threshold color range, therate of flashing of the detected blinking being within a threshold rate,and/or the location of the detected blinking being within a thresholdrange of locations for another vehicle. The threshold(s) may be selectedor adjusted responsive to the current geographical location of theequipped vehicle.

The camera or sensor may comprise any suitable camera or sensor.Optionally, the camera may comprise a “smart camera” that includes theimaging sensor array and associated circuitry and image processingcircuitry and electrical connectors and the like as part of a cameramodule, such as by utilizing aspects of the vision systems described inInternational Publication Nos. WO 2013/081984 and/or WO 2013/081985,which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

The system includes an image processor operable to process image datacaptured by the camera or cameras, such as for detecting objects orother vehicles or pedestrians or the like in the field of view of one ormore of the cameras. For example, the image processor may comprise animage processing chip selected from the EyeQ family of image processingchips available from Mobileye Vision Technologies Ltd. of Jerusalem,Israel, and may include object detection software (such as the typesdescribed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,855,755; 7,720,580 and/or 7,038,577, whichare hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties), andmay analyze image data to detect vehicles and/or other objects.Responsive to such image processing, and when an object or other vehicleis detected, the system may generate an alert to the driver of thevehicle and/or may generate an overlay at the displayed image tohighlight or enhance display of the detected object or vehicle, in orderto enhance the driver's awareness of the detected object or vehicle orhazardous condition during a driving maneuver of the equipped vehicle.

The vehicle may include any type of sensor or sensors, such as imagingsensors or radar sensors or lidar sensors or ladar sensors or ultrasonicsensors or the like. The imaging sensor or camera may capture image datafor image processing and may comprise any suitable camera or sensingdevice, such as, for example, a two dimensional array of a plurality ofphotosensor elements arranged in at least 640 columns and 480 rows (atleast a 640×480 imaging array, such as a megapixel imaging array or thelike), with a respective lens focusing images onto respective portionsof the array. The photosensor array may comprise a plurality ofphotosensor elements arranged in a photosensor array having rows andcolumns. Preferably, the imaging array has at least 300,000 photosensorelements or pixels, more preferably at least 500,000 photosensorelements or pixels and more preferably at least 1 million photosensorelements or pixels. The imaging array may capture color image data, suchas via spectral filtering at the array, such as via an RGB (red, greenand blue) filter or via a red/red complement filter or such as via anRCC (red, clear, clear) filter or the like. The logic and controlcircuit of the imaging sensor may function in any known manner, and theimage processing and algorithmic processing may comprise any suitablemeans for processing the images and/or image data.

For example, the vision system and/or processing and/or camera and/orcircuitry may utilize aspects described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,233,641;9,146,898; 9,174,574; 9,090,234; 9,077,098; 8,818,042; 8,886,401;9,077,962; 9,068,390; 9,140,789; 9,092,986; 9,205,776; 8,917,169;8,694,224; 7,005,974; 5,760,962; 5,877,897; 5,796,094; 5,949,331;6,222,447; 6,302,545; 6,396,397; 6,498,620; 6,523,964; 6,611,202;6,201,642; 6,690,268; 6,717,610; 6,757,109; 6,802,617; 6,806,452;6,822,563; 6,891,563; 6,946,978; 7,859,565; 5,550,677; 5,670,935;6,636,258; 7,145,519; 7,161,616; 7,230,640; 7,248,283; 7,295,229;7,301,466; 7,592,928; 7,881,496; 7,720,580; 7,038,577; 6,882,287;5,929,786 and/or 5,786,772, and/or U.S. Publication Nos.US-2014-0340510; US-2014-0313339; US-2014-0347486; US-2014-0320658;US-2014-0336876; US-2014-0307095; US-2014-0327774; US-2014-0327772;US-2014-0320636; US-2014-0293057; US-2014-0309884; US-2014-0226012;US-2014-0293042; US-2014-0218535; US-2014-0218535; US-2014-0247354;US-2014-0247355; US-2014-0247352; US-2014-0232869; US-2014-0211009;US-2014-0160276; US-2014-0168437; US-2014-0168415; US-2014-0160291;US-2014-0152825; US-2014-0139676; US-2014-0138140; US-2014-0104426;US-2014-0098229; US-2014-0085472; US-2014-0067206; US-2014-0049646;US-2014-0052340; US-2014-0025240; US-2014-0028852; US-2014-005907;US-2013-0314503; US-2013-0298866; US-2013-0222593; US-2013-0300869;US-2013-0278769; US-2013-0258077; US-2013-0258077; US-2013-0242099;US-2013-0215271; US-2013-0141578 and/or US-2013-0002873, which are allhereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. The systemmay communicate with other communication systems via any suitable means,such as by utilizing aspects of the systems described in InternationalPublication Nos. WO 2010/144900; WO 2013/043661 and/or WO 2013/081985,and/or U.S. Pat. No. 9,126,525, which are hereby incorporated herein byreference in their entireties.

Optionally, the camera may comprise a forward facing camera, such asdisposed at a windshield electronics module (WEM) or the like. Theforward facing camera may utilize aspects of the systems described inU.S. Pat. Nos. 8,256,821; 7,480,149; 6,824,281 and/or 6,690,268, and/orU.S. Publication Nos. US-2015-0327398; US-2015-0015713; US-2014-0160284;US-2014-0226012 and/or US-2009-0295181, which are all herebyincorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

The system may also communicate with other systems, such as via avehicle-to-vehicle communication system or a vehicle-to-infrastructurecommunication system or the like. Such car2car or vehicle to vehicle(V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (car2X or V2X or V2I or 4G or 5G)technology provides for communication between vehicles and/orinfrastructure based on information provided by one or more vehiclesand/or information provided by a remote server or the like. Such vehiclecommunication systems may utilize aspects of the systems described inU.S. Pat. Nos. 6,690,268; 6,693,517 and/or 7,580,795, and/or U.S.Publication Nos. US-2014-0375476; US-2014-0218529; US-2013-0222592;US-2012-0218412; US-2012-0062743; US-2015-0251599; US-2015-0158499;US-2015-0124096; US-2015-0352953; US-2016-0036917 and/orUS-2016-0210853, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference intheir entireties.

The system may utilize sensors, such as radar sensors or lidar sensorsor the like. The sensing system may utilize aspects of the systemsdescribed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,753,121; 9,689,967; 9,599,702; 9,575,160;9,146,898; 9,036,026; 8,027,029; 8,013,780; 6,825,455; 7,053,357;7,408,627; 7,405,812; 7,379,163; 7,379,100; 7,375,803; 7,352,454;7,340,077; 7,321,111; 7,310,431; 7,283,213; 7,212,663; 7,203,356;7,176,438; 7,157,685; 6,919,549; 6,906,793; 6,876,775; 6,710,770;6,690,354; 6,678,039; 6,674,895 and/or 6,587,186, and/or InternationalPublication No. WO 2011/090484 and/or U.S. Publication Nos.US-2017-0222311 and/or US-2010-0245066 and/or U.S. patent applications,Ser. No. 15/685,123, filed Aug. 24, 2017 (Attorney Docket MAG04P-3102R), Ser. No. 15/675,919, filed Aug. 14, 2017 (Attorney DocketMAG04 P-3092R), Ser. No. 15/647,339, filed Jul. 12, 2017 (AttorneyDocket MAG04 P-3071R), Ser. No. 15/619,627, filed Jun. 12, 2017(Attorney Docket MAG04 P-3056R), Ser. No. 15/584,265, filed May 2, 2017(Attorney Docket MAG04 P-3017R), Ser. No. 15/467,247, filed Mar. 23,2017 (Attorney Docket MAG04 P-2978R), and/or Ser. No. 15/446,220, filedMar. 1, 2017 (Attorney Docket MAG04 P-2955), and/or International PCTApplication No. PCT/IB2017/054120, filed Jul. 7, 2017 (Attorney DocketMAG04 FP-3069PCT), which are hereby incorporated herein by reference intheir entireties.

Optionally, the vision system may include a display for displayingimages captured by one or more of the imaging sensors for viewing by thedriver of the vehicle while the driver is normally operating thevehicle. Optionally, for example, the vision system may include a videodisplay device, such as by utilizing aspects of the video displaysystems described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,530,240; 6,329,925; 7,855,755;7,626,749; 7,581,859; 7,446,650; 7,338,177; 7,274,501; 7,255,451;7,195,381; 7,184,190; 5,668,663; 5,724,187; 6,690,268; 7,370,983;7,329,013; 7,308,341; 7,289,037; 7,249,860; 7,004,593; 4,546,551;5,699,044; 4,953,305; 5,576,687; 5,632,092; 5,677,851; 5,708,410;5,737,226; 5,802,727; 5,878,370; 6,087,953; 6,173,508; 6,222,460;6,513,252 and/or 6,642,851, and/or U.S. Publication Nos.US-2012-0162427; US-2006-0050018 and/or US-2006-0061008, which are allhereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

Optionally, the vision system (utilizing the forward facing camera and arearward facing camera and other cameras disposed at the vehicle withexterior fields of view) may be part of or may provide a display of atop-down view or birds-eye view system of the vehicle or a surround viewat the vehicle, such as by utilizing aspects of the vision systemsdescribed in International Publication Nos. WO 2010/099416; WO2011/028686; WO 2012/075250; WO 2013/019795; WO 2012/075250; WO2012/145822; WO 2013/081985; WO 2013/086249 and/or WO 2013/109869,and/or U.S. Publication No. US-2012-0162427, which are herebyincorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

Changes and modifications in the specifically described embodiments canbe carried out without departing from the principles of the invention,which is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appendedclaims, as interpreted according to the principles of patent lawincluding the doctrine of equivalents.

1. A vision system for a vehicle, said vision system comprising: acamera disposed at a vehicle equipped with said vision system and havinga field of view exterior of the equipped vehicle; a control having animage processor operable to process image data captured by said camera;wherein said control, via processing by said image processor of imagedata captured by said camera, detects the presence of a vehicle in thefield of view of said camera; wherein said control, via processing bysaid image processor of image data captured by said camera, determinesan angle of the detected vehicle relative to the equipped vehicle and,responsive to determination of the angle, determines a middle region ofan end of the detected vehicle viewed by said camera; wherein saidcontrol, via processing by said image processor of image data capturedby said camera, is operable to detect the presence of a blinking lightsource in the field of view of said camera; wherein, responsive todetection of a blinking light source, said vision system is operable todetermine if the detected blinking light source is a turn signalindicator of the detected vehicle on the road on which the equippedvehicle is traveling based on a characteristic of the detected blinkinglight source being within a threshold level corresponding to acharacteristic of a turn signal indicator of a vehicle; and wherein,responsive at least in part to determination of the middle region of theend of the detected vehicle, said control determines whether thedetermined turn signal indicator is a left turn signal indicator of thedetected vehicle or a right turn signal indicator of the detectedvehicle.
 2. The vision system of claim 1, wherein said vision systemdetermines that a detected blinking light source is a turn signalindicator of another vehicle on the road more than one lane away fromthe lane in which the equipped vehicle is traveling.
 3. The visionsystem of claim 1, wherein said camera is disposed at a rear portion ofthe equipped vehicle has a field of view rearward of the equippedvehicle, and wherein the end of the detected vehicle viewed by saidcamera is a front end of the detected vehicle.
 4. The vision system ofclaim 1, wherein said camera is disposed at a front portion of theequipped vehicle has a field of view forward of the equipped vehicle,and wherein the end of the detected vehicle viewed by said camera is arear end of the detected vehicle.
 5. The vision system of claim 1,wherein, responsive at least in part to determination of the middle ofthe end of the detected vehicle, said control, via processing by saidimage processor of image data captured by said camera, determineswhether the determined turn signal indicator is at a left side of thedetermined middle of the end of the detected vehicle or at a right sideof the determined middle of the end of the detected vehicle.
 6. Thevision system of claim 1, wherein said vision system is operable todetermine if the detected blinking light source is a turn signalindicator of the detected vehicle based on a color of the detectedblinking light source being within a threshold color range.
 7. Thevision system of claim 1, wherein said vision system is operable todetermine if the detected blinking light source is a turn signalindicator of the detected vehicle based on the rate of flashing of thedetected blinking light source being within a threshold rate.
 8. Thevision system of claim 1, wherein said vision system is operable todetermine if the detected blinking light source is a turn signalindicator of the detected vehicle based on the location of the detectedblinking light source being within a threshold range of locations foranother vehicle.
 9. The vision system of claim 1, wherein the thresholdlevel is selected or adjusted responsive to a current geographicallocation of the equipped vehicle.
 10. The vision system of claim 1,wherein said control determines the middle region of the end of thevehicle viewed by said camera at least in part responsive to adetermined distance to the other vehicle.
 11. A vision system for avehicle, said vision system comprising: a camera disposed at a frontportion of a vehicle equipped with said vision system and having a fieldof view forward and sideward of the equipped vehicle; a control havingan image processor operable to process image data captured by saidcamera; wherein said control, via processing by said image processor ofimage data captured by said camera, detects the presence of a leadingvehicle ahead of the equipped vehicle and in the field of view of saidcamera; wherein said control, via processing by said image processor ofimage data captured by said camera, determines an angle of the detectedvehicle relative to the equipped vehicle and, responsive todetermination of the angle, determines a middle region of a rear end ofthe detected vehicle viewed by said camera; wherein said control, viaprocessing by said image processor of image data captured by saidcamera, is operable to detect the presence of a blinking light source inthe field of view of said camera; wherein, responsive to detection of ablinking light source, said vision system is operable to determine ifthe detected blinking light source is a turn signal indicator of thedetected vehicle on the road on which the equipped vehicle is travelingbased on a characteristic of the detected blinking light source beingwithin a threshold level corresponding to a characteristic of a turnsignal indicator of a vehicle; wherein, responsive at least in part todetermination of the middle region of the rear end of the detectedvehicle, said control determines whether the determined turn signalindicator is a left turn signal indicator of the detected vehicle or aright turn signal indicator of the detected vehicle; and wherein saidvision system determines that the detected blinking light source is aleft or right turn signal indicator of another vehicle on the road morethan one lane away from the lane in which the equipped vehicle istraveling.
 12. The vision system of claim 11, wherein said vision systemis operable to determine if the detected blinking light source is a turnsignal indicator of the detected vehicle based on a color of thedetected blinking light source being within a threshold color range. 13.The vision system of claim 11, wherein said vision system is operable todetermine if the detected blinking light source is a turn signalindicator of the detected vehicle based on the rate of flashing of thedetected blinking light source being within a threshold rate.
 14. Thevision system of claim 11, wherein the threshold level is selected oradjusted responsive to a current geographical location of the equippedvehicle.
 15. The vision system of claim 11, wherein said controldetermines the middle region of the end of the vehicle viewed by saidcamera at least in part responsive to a determined distance to the othervehicle.
 16. A vision system for a vehicle, said vision systemcomprising: a camera disposed at a rear portion of a vehicle equippedwith said vision system and having a field of view rearward and sidewardof the equipped vehicle; a control having an image processor operable toprocess image data captured by said camera; wherein said control, viaprocessing by said image processor of image data captured by saidcamera, detects the presence of a trailing vehicle behind the equippedvehicle and in the field of view of said camera; wherein said control,via processing by said image processor of image data captured by saidcamera, determines an angle of the detected vehicle relative to theequipped vehicle and, responsive to determination of the angle,determines a middle region of a front end of the detected vehicle viewedby said camera; wherein said control, via processing by said imageprocessor of image data captured by said camera, is operable to detectthe presence of a blinking light source in the field of view of saidcamera; wherein, responsive to detection of a blinking light source,said vision system is operable to determine if the detected blinkinglight source is a turn signal indicator of the detected vehicle on theroad on which the equipped vehicle is traveling based on acharacteristic of the detected blinking light source being within athreshold level corresponding to a characteristic of a turn signalindicator of a vehicle; wherein, responsive at least in part todetermination of the middle region of the front end of the detectedvehicle, said control determines whether the determined turn signalindicator is a left turn signal indicator of the detected vehicle or aright turn signal indicator of the detected vehicle; and wherein saidvision system determines that the detected blinking light source is aleft or right turn signal indicator of another vehicle on the road morethan one lane away from the lane in which the equipped vehicle istraveling.
 17. The vision system of claim 16, wherein said vision systemis operable to determine if the detected blinking light source is a turnsignal indicator of the detected vehicle based on a color of thedetected blinking light source being within a threshold color range. 18.The vision system of claim 16, wherein said vision system is operable todetermine if the detected blinking light source is a turn signalindicator of the detected vehicle based on the rate of flashing of thedetected blinking light source being within a threshold rate.
 19. Thevision system of claim 16, wherein the threshold level is selected oradjusted responsive to a current geographical location of the equippedvehicle.
 20. The vision system of claim 16, wherein said controldetermines the middle region of the end of the vehicle viewed by saidcamera at least in part responsive to a determined distance to the othervehicle.